China's Nio launches Onvo L60 SUV to challenge Tesla Model Y

Chinese electric vehicle maker Nio has launched the first model under its lower-priced brand Onvo which aims to renew rivalry with Tesla and the likes. Deliveries of the Onvo L60 is slated to begin in September. The new electric SUV will pose direct challenge to the world's best-selling EV - the Model Y. It has been priced from 219,900 yuan (USD 30,476), which is 12% below the price of Tesla's Model Y which starts at 249,900 yuan in China.

Not just Tesla; with the Onvo L60, Nio also plans to take on Toyota RAV4 electric vehicle. While introducing the electric car in Shanghai, Nio's CEO William Li said that the brand will provide family cars that balance customer experience and ownership costs. Li added, "RAV4 and Model Y were the benchmark for family cars in their time. With technologies evolving and people’s understanding in smart EVs deepening, today it’s time for us to redefine the new standards for family cars."

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Ai Tiecheng, president of the Onvo brand informed that the L60 electric SUV comes equipped with an in-house 900-volt fast-charging system and has an average energy consumption of 12.1 kilowatt-hours (kwh) per 100 kilometers, which is slightly lower than Tesla's Model Y. The car is also being touted as more spacious than the Model Y.

Customers of the Onvo brand will also benefit from the wide network of more than 1,000 battery swapping stations and 25,000 public chargers belonging to Nio. The company is also offering an EV battery rental programme, which makes the ownership of the vehicle even more flexible.

Further, thanks to its lower price tag and better features, the Onvo brand could also help Nio expand outside China. However, expansion in Europe could be overshadowed by an ongoing anti-subsidy probe that the EU has launched into EV imports from China.

In a related development, Nio has struck a deal with native rival BYD to source batteries for the Onvo lineup, after it abandoned plans to produce batteries in-house. This step will help it reduce costs amid a fierce price war in China's ultra-competitive EV market.

(with inputs from Reuters)